Child protection services – forced to privatise

A government-commissioned report into the potential for outsourcing within children's services states that there is a "clear appetite" among potential service suppliers to take on "the more high-risk areas of service" and that the government could require certain services to be outsourced.

The report also states that there is a need “for a step change in commissioning practices", and proposes that a National Children's Social Care Commissioning Board is created.

The report was overseen by an advisory panel including chief social worker Isabelle Trowler, former president of the Association of Directors of Children's Services Alan Wood, and economics professor Julian Le Grand.

It concludes that it is hard to envisage how significant additional capacity and diversity could be created "without more services being exposed to market forces".